Revisiting the murder of Louis Allen

60 minutes rewind five years ago the FBI announced that it was reopening more than 100 unsolved murder cases from the Civil Rights hear of the 1950s and 60s the goal of the cold case initiative was to try and meet out justice and what seem to be racially motivated killings that were never prosecuted not many 50-year old cold cases ever get solved memories fade evidence has lost witnesses and suspects die or disappear but that's not the case in the death of Lewis Allen mostly forgotten but historically significant murder that helped bring thousands of white college students to Mississippi in the freedom summer of 1964 the murder is still unsolved but the case has never quite gone away because the chief suspect is very much alive and walking the streets of a town called Liberty Liberty Mississippi is a small rural logging town not far from the Louisiana border the FBI believes that some people here have been keeping a dark secret for nearly 50 years from one of the ugliest periods in the state's history it was a time when civil rights activists were beaten and arrested when state and local politics were controlled by all white citizens councils and when people like Lewis Allen were murdered in cold blood without redress you keep the photo of Lewis Allen on your desk we do what the case bothers me I feel like we failed and not just the FBI but law enforcement cynthia Deedle is a 15-year veteran of the FBI's Civil Rights Division and until a few weeks ago was in charge of the cold-case initiative of the 100 unsolved racially motivated murders she's been charged with investigating none has been more promising or frustrating than Lewis Allen's somebody knows something some husband came home with bloody clothing someone got drunk in a bar and said what he was doing last night someone knows something but in the early 1960s people in and around Liberty knew to keep their mouths shut a violent chapter of the Ku Klux Klan used cross burnings abductions and murder to enforce the doctrine of white supremacy and to intimidate the black population most of which lived in shacks with no electricity or plumbing and were not allowed to vote civil rights leaders like Robert Moses who came south to help them register were frequently the target of violence Liberty was not a place that I like to go why because it was a place where you weren't safe if you were doing voter registration one it was in Liberty that Moses met Lewis Allen a rough-hewn World War two veteran who walked proud and was not afraid to stand up for himself he ran a small timber business was one of the few blacks in Liberty to own his own land and always wore a hat which he considered a sign of self-respect he was not the type to seek out trouble Robert Moses says it found him he was at the wrong place at the wrong time he saw something that happened and he was deeply as disturbed and affected by that and so he had a basic life decision to make on September 25th 1961 Allen was walking past this old cotton gin when he saw something that likely got him killed Lewis Allen witnessed a powerful state legislature by the name of eh Hurst shoot and kill an unarmed black man named Herbert Lee Allen told his friends and family that he and other eyewitnesses had been pressured into lying about the shooting in the saying that it was self-defense later Allen decided that he needed to tell the truth one of the people Lewis Allen told it to was Julian Bond who is trying to register black voters in Mississippi for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee he would later become a legendary civil rights leader this was not a self-defense action by the state representative this was out-and-out murder that's all it was but Louis Allen agreed to lie about that why do you think he lied he lied because he was in fear of his life if he had implicated a powerful white man at a murder of a black man that he was risking his life did you encourage him to tell the truth I tried to encourage him to the truth but you know it was like saying why don't you volunteer to be killed but Allen's wife would later testify that his conscience was clipping him and he decided to tell FBI agents and the u.s. Commission on civil rights what really happened at the cotton gin this document from FBI file says Alan changed his story and expressed fear that he might be killed he asked for protection but none was provided almost immediately word began circulating in Liberty that Lewis Allen was prepared to change his testimony he was threatened as a result of the fact that he was going to change the statement that he did change his statement and the FBI was notified of those threats yes did the FBI do anything yes we referred that to local law enforcement authorities it's certainly possible to conclude the local law enforcement people were the ones behind the threats there is a theory out there that that speaks to that yes in fact it's been the prevailing theory for some time although the FBI cannot officially confirm it there is a 1961 reference in the FBI file to a report that Allen was to be killed and the local sheriff was involved in the plot to kill him and we found this 1962 letter from Robert Moses to assist an attorney general John doar alleging the same thing they're after him in amit county it says it makes reference to a plot by the sheriff and seven other men it was afraid of the sheriff's department I think he was yes and I think he was afraid of the Klan although they seemed to be sort of the same thing in Liberty at this time I'm not sure I can say that Julian Bond was less circumspect the law enforcement you were suspected they were members if you wanted to be a mayor a city councilmen a county commissioner or the sheriff if you wanted to be in the legislature you had to have some connection with the Klan and in the admit County Sheriff's Department the person would the best connection was deputy sheriff Daniel Jones his father was the exalted Cyclops of the local Klan and Jones himself according to this FBI document we found was suspected of being a Klan member Jones who's alive and still resides in Liberty was recently visited by FBI agents who wanted him to take a lie-detector test what was he like well mean Hank Allen was 17 years old when his father was killed and he remembers Daniel Jones as his main tormentor he says he watched Jones harass and repeatedly arrest his father on trumped-up charges and one night beat him outside their home and I he had handcuffed him the old abused on the wrist so dad asked for his hat I told daddy no you can't go get your hat dad I said well die my son is on the porch can he bring me my head he dogged back he took a flashlight and he struck my dad and broke his jaw bone handcuff when he got out of jail Lewis Allen did something that was unheard of for a black man in Mississippi he went to the FBI and lodged a complaint against deputy sheriff Jones and testified before a federal grand jury the case was thrown out in the situation and liberty continued to deteriorate they stopped selling Daddy gas in the town they stopped buying his logs they just more or less just right there blackballed him it got to the point the harassment and just him not being able to survive and Liberty that he decided to leave and to go work in another state and it's the night before he is due to leave that he is killed Lewis Alan was ambushed here on a cold night in January 1964 after getting out of his truck to open the cattle gate that led to his property his son Hank was the one who found him I didn't know why he would park the truck in the middle of the driveway and leave it like that and I climbed up in the truck the headlights was real dim and when I went to step down out the truck I stepped on something and that's when I stepped on that mouth with my daddy's hand he was lying upon the truck he was killed with two blasts of deer shot to the head the investigating officer was none other than the newly elected sheriff daniel Jones who Hank said made it clear to the family why his father had been murdered he told my mom that if Lewis had just said his mouth that he wouldn't be laying there on the ground he wouldn't be dead you think sheriff Jones said it yes indeed by all means if he didn't do it he was the entrepreneur of it Jones told the newspapers he was unable to find a single clue how would you characterize the investigation that sheriff Jones conducted he did not develop any fingerprints any physical evidence and he never developed any suspects not a great investigation probably could have done more in fact it's not clear that anyone investigated Lewis Allen's murder until 1994 when plater Robinson an historian at the southern Institute at Tulane University began digging into it from day one in Liberty people told me that Daniel Jones and a colored man killed Louis Allen Robinson has spent 17 years combing through archives and tracking down people to interview one of them was an elderly preacher named Alfred knocks knocks told Robinson in a 1998 tape recorded conversation that his son-in-law Archie Weatherspoon was with sheriff Daniel Jones when Allen was murdered less than an over witty to kill those Alec you know where you going to the gun in cop and he say would you pull the check would you student say no I'm gonna do it now what my son-in-law say I know what should you come out and get him you get it so thank you both Knox and his son-in-law took their stories to the grave but Plato Robinson says the answer to who killed Lewis Allen can still be found in Liberty a lot of people are dead but there's still a number of significant people still alive like who beside sheriff Jones well Charles Raven Kraft he lives down the road he's quite healthy we found Charles Raven Kraft at the Liberty drugstore presiding over a coffee klatch of old-timers some of whom were around when Lewis Allen was murdered four years Raven Kraft was Sergeant at Arms of the Mississippi legislature and at the time of Lewis Allen's murder vice-president of the Americans for the preservation of the white race and liberty a front group for the Ku Klux Klan was it around Charles plan sure what do you guys in it there wasn't a Klan Raven craft indicated that he hadn't lost much sleep over Lewis Allen's murder and told us he had no idea who killed him no wind-borne Sullivan wasn't around when Lewis Allen was killed but he ran the Liberty drugstore for 36 years I think there are people who know what happened and he did it in there but they're not willing to talk about it and they won't talk about they told us they don't see much of former sheriff daniel Jones these days he spends most of his time on his property just off the state highway we decided to approach him with our cameras concealed on the off chance he might give something up after waiting for a half an hour on the porch he rolled up in an all-terrain vehicle with his my name is steve Kroft how you doing Joe we're from 60 minutes in New York we're down here working on a story or an old case of yours and was wondering if you'd have some time to talk to us about it no I don't believe so you don't think so no the Lewis Allen case you know he was polite and cordial you said he didn't want to talk but he kept on talking there was some bad blood between you and and Lewis right it was not between apparently I'm talking more when I need to but I'm on the truth sometimes has a way of slipping out if you're trying to keep it covered up mm-hmm were you in the Klan I won't answer that I take the free oath on Ned Jones confirmed that the FBI had already been there asking some of the same questions I told you I don't care that's good to know and you just keep coming to yolk well-educated approach no it's not my educated approach look you haven't told me to get off your property I just asked me one last question okay can you look me onto say you weren't involved in it no sir I wasn't involved well you know sheriff you could clear this up with a lie detector test the theory that sheriff Jones killed Lewis Allen has been in the public domain for quite some time the FBI would be remiss in our duties if we did not pursue that theory and it's still just a theory a circumstantial case based on motive suspicions hearsay in the words of dead people there's no forensic evidence no murder weapon no eyewitnesses and only one FBI agent working the case part time my name is Cynthia Deedle in a town-hall meeting and nearby Baton Rouge Deedle tried to shake out some new leads and enlist journalists activists and students to help the FBI solve the murder but there were some in the audience who still mistrust the FBI and think the cold-case initiative is living more than public relations there has been nothing dead there has been not one arrest that has been all kind of as investigations made and I hate to say things like this because the FBI is only help I got should the FBI be doing more if there should be doing more you know thank God for these people who are doing it but we can't turn law enforcement over to journalists we can't turn it over to academics we can't depend on some guy Tulane to tell us who's killing people in Mississippi come on why are you relying on reporters and professors and people and people now yeah yeah this is the most powerful law-enforcement agency in the country you have subpoena power we do we have resources that we could bring to bear on any case why don't you bring them they have been but I've learned in these cases that a witness a family member may be more comfortable talking to you then she would be talking to me for Hank Allen the time to solve his father's killing was 47 years ago he believes the people who know what happened black and white would rather forget it now and that the wall of silence and the passage of time have granted immunity to those he thinks are responsible here's a guy goes on living his normal life enjoying life but they feel as though we're doing something wrong by saying some about the murder in other words you should be quiet about that that was in the past well they're still in my present and in my future I have to look at this every day

Channel: 60 Minutes

Views: 1,195,820

Keywords: 60 Minutes, CBS News, killing of george floyd, minneapolis police department, lesley stahl, 60 minutes, pharma, Louis Allen

Id: KS6EvTIoHis

Length: 16min 5sec (965 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 21 2020